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Monica's Reviews > Outliers: The Story of Success
Outliers: The Story of Success
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Monica's review
bookshelves: behavior-psychology, kindle_nonfiction, aoc, aoc-male, business-economics, pub_2000s, soc-sci-politics, popular
Dec 01, 2018
bookshelves: behavior-psychology, kindle_nonfiction, aoc, aoc-male, business-economics, pub_2000s, soc-sci-politics, popular
I don't know about Malcolm Gladwell. I've read 3 of his books. All of them fine, but nothing special. All of them fairly superficial with nothing original or innovative. I think his books are very pop culture and should be read in the time frame (say within a year) that they are published. Too long after that and they become stale, not prolific or prescient. Gladwell is a very good and interesting writer, but I don't think his books have much depth or staying power.
Almost 3.5 Stars
Read on kindle.
Almost 3.5 Stars
Read on kindle.
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Reading Progress
November 28, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
November 28, 2013
– Shelved
November 28, 2013
– Shelved as:
behavior-psychology
June 11, 2014
– Shelved as:
kindle_nonfiction
November 22, 2014
– Shelved as:
aoc
December 21, 2015
– Shelved as:
aoc-male
August 4, 2017
– Shelved as:
business-economics
March 15, 2018
– Shelved as:
pub_2000s
September 26, 2018
– Shelved as:
01-in_the_hole
October 24, 2018
– Shelved as:
00-on_deck
November 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
November 20, 2018
– Shelved as:
00-on_deck
November 23, 2018
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Started Reading
November 23, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
November 25, 2018
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0.0%
"The Matthew Effect - The notion that there are some structural advantages that people pretend don't exist in an attempt to pretend meritocracy. Gladwell is talking about sports but he could be talking about a lot of things (gender, race etc)."
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December 1, 2018
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Finished Reading
December 2, 2018
– Shelved as:
soc-sci-politics
September 30, 2019
– Shelved as:
popular
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BlackOxford
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Dec 02, 2018 12:25AM
Whenever I hear of a book that has anything to do with the ‘secrets of success�, two questions come to mind: 1) I wonder what definition of success he uses to make his analysis self-fulfilling? And 2) I wonder how many of his success stories will eventually be exposed as paedophiles and serial killers?
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BlackOxford wrote: "Whenever I hear of a book that has anything to do with the ‘secrets of success�, two questions come to mind: 1) I wonder what definition of success he uses to make his analysis self-fulfilling? And..."Heh!! Spot on!! Who gets to say what is the definition of success and can they be considered successful if their character is wanting. BlackOxford your comment was deeper than this book!!
Monica wrote: "BlackOxford wrote: "Whenever I hear of a book that has anything to do with the ‘secrets of successâ€�, two questions come to mind: 1) I wonder what definition of success he uses to make his analysis ..."ðŸ·ß
For starters, Gladwell misappropriated the genuine research of another and morphed it into the bogus 10,000-hour "rule." /book/show/3...
Michael wrote: "For starters, Gladwell misappropriated the genuine research of another and morphed it into the bogus 10,000-hour "rule." /book/show/3..."
I read your review and remembered when I read in some other book the notion of practice and yes it applied to sports. I think the book you reference in your review was The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance which was excellent.
As I was reading this book I thought "this really isn't worth an in depth analysis". Frankly, even his anecdotes seemed (10 years later) to lack substance. His conclusions in all 3 of the books are sketchy at best in my view.
Yes, Monica, that's the book, written by David Epstein, who I quote. I confess I was wary of citing the title as it would sound as if I was opting for a certain determinism as an alternative to practice, which I'm not. And, I agree, his book was overkill.The main point, however, per Gladwell is that he's not a true researcher. He likes to appropriate the research and ideas of others and spin anecdotes he knows will appeal to readers, but don't prove anything.
Another book that lost out on being topical, but isn't insightful enough to make the past interesting, eh?
Beth wrote: "Another book that lost out on being topical, but isn't insightful enough to make the past interesting, eh?"Exactly!!! But mostly it lacked substance. or to borrow and twist a marketing phrase: "Tastes ok, less filling" ;-)
